THE SALVATION ARMY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2449, 13 March 1909, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE SALVATION ARMY.

A “HOME” IN •WELLINGTON. (Contributed.) Under the personal supervision of Mrs Booth, who is ably seconded in this branch of her labor by Com mission or Adelaide Cox, there is being carried on a work, the nature of which necessitates its being comparatively little known to the outsido public. This is the Women’s Social Work, of tho vastness and efficiency of which the following glimpses will give some idea: Tho Women Social Work began very humbly and in a small way. About a. quarter of a century ago, one soldier in tho 'Whitechapel Corps of the Salvation Army, a married women showed special interest in tho miserable .girls banging' about the East End streets. The woman herself !ivod in ono of the most wretched of Spitalfxelds streets. She had courage and hope. She begged the chiefs of tho Army to help her and she took girls who were in distress and trouble into her home. Others came to her aid, Mrs Brc.mwoll Booth, Miss Sapswortn, and more. Gradually the work extended. The pioneer campaigners will admit, if you ask them, that they wore woefully ignorant when they started. At the beginning, the organised, systematic, over-powering vice of London was unknown to them. They started to ■plumb its depths, and they recoiled appalled. Then they went forward again. About this time Mr Stead published his world-arousing articles on “The Maiden Tribute.” Mr Bramwell Booth was a prominent figure in tho fiery campaign that followed. As a result, many young women desiring to rise from tho depths, appealed to the Salvation Army. Something had to be done. The outcomo of that somethin o- may he seen to day in the Women's Social Work. That prevention is bettor than cure the Army has ever maintained, and an example of what it is doing in this direction may he seen at any hour by a peop into the Homes for little girls situated in \\ ellington South. There are doubtless still people to be found who look upon the Salvation Army as a band of solemn-faced killjoys. I would recommend such folks to spend an hour some afternoon in the Home at Wellington South. What is the Home? It is one of the most charming, delightful, and happy houses it has ever been my privilege to enter. One realises that much lacfore you have been inside the doors a few minutes. You learn it, not from being told, but by the happy smiling-faoed, play-loving children all around, and when you go below the surface, and discover where these children have come from and what they are vou are lost in wonder. For the children in the Home have been largely drawn from the most cruelly used and wronged infant victims of our age. Here is a girl- Mark her well! Hw face looks wholly happy. Yet, when that girl first arrived at the Home, cowed and horror-struck, she came from a house of horrible death. Here are others with still sadder tales. They are the victims of the lust of men. All the horrors are fading from their minds now. • What is the secret of the Home? Hero is a place filled with children who are manv of them the most difficult cases to"deal with. Punishment is unknown. The naughty girl is talked to, reasoned with, prayed with, and sometimes maybe cried Over. The littlo miss who conics sullen and determined to make trouble finds to her surprise that in place of being shaken stormed at one of the smilmg-faced young officers slips a friendly arm around her, lifts her on her knee, and has a kindly chat. If she does anything that is refilly annoying, all her child companions regard her with pity and wonder. It is the fashion to be good here, J was told. A still clearer idea of the extent to which this beneficent work is being carried, -and of tlio enormous sums needed to sustain and extend it, will bo afforded bv the following statistics f °'' l9oS: During 1908. No. of meals supplied at cheap food depots 5,743,055 No. or cheap lodgings for the homeless ••• 2,132.189 No. of meetings held in shelter 6, 1 61 No', of applications from Unemployed registered at tho Labor Bureaux ... 39,864 No. received into factories 4 } h < No. for whom employment lias been found 22,493 No. of ex-criminals received into Homes No. of ex-criminals assisted restored to friends ... 1.157 No. of applications for lost persons , 2-286 No. of 'Lost persons found oil No. of women and girls •received into Rescue Homes 3/189 No. of Women and Girls received into Rescue Homo who were sent to situations, restored to friends etc 3,053 No. of families visited in slums ••• 85,239 No. of families prayed with 50,729 No. of public houses visited 29,326 No: of sick people visited and nursed 13,641